Politico Top Stories

Monday, August 27, 2012

Big Cash for Kennedy

Republican Sean Bielat faces off against Democrat Joseph P. Kennedy
III in Massachusetts’ 4th Congressional District in November. Kennedy
has received an extraordinary amount of out-of-state fundraising and
favorable coverage from liberal mainstream media outlets more focused on
his last name than his district.
Kennedy, 31, held a fundraiser
last Thursday at his family’s Hyannis Port compound. The event was
co-hosted by his grandmother Ethel and the Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee (DCCC). House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and
Massachusetts Democratic congressmen Barney Frank, Bill Keating, Ed
Markey, Richard Neal, John Tierney, and Niki Tsongas were in attendance.
A ticket for four to the event, with access to a photo line, cost
$35,800.
The Hyannis Port fundraiser was no outlier.
“His fundraising is just ridiculous, both in quantity and by virtue
of the fact that he’s started a leadership PAC. How many first-time
candidates start leadership PACs because they’re raising so much money?”
Bielat, a former Marine Corps officer and Barney Frank’s Republican
challenger in the district in 2010, told the Free Beacon.
“If you look at his FEC report, you have to go 5 or 6 pages before
you find a donation below $1,000,” said Massachusetts political
consultant Brad Marston. “It’s all these family connections that have
been set up over six decades.”

According to Open Secrets, Kennedy has received just $455 in small donations (donations under $200), which Open Secrets rounds to 0% of his $3-million fundraising haul. Bielat, on the other hand, has raised $214,000 in small contributions (out of about half a million in contributions). So Bielat has raised about 4700% the amount of small donations that Kennedy has.